OOOhhh why? Does she know that its just a matter of time before Mation Higas digs up where all the monies have gone? Isn't obvious when you see her in the public that she looks guilty? It does to me. How can you stand there with that look of desperation week after week? Audit these education departments which are sneakly ripping us and the kids off. Get rid of that protageee union head Pierra who's,arrogance, and ethics are beyond sesenbility. C-mon Marion audit the heck out of them.

When the going gets tough a good leader will not resign unless the leader has issues which drive the resignation. It's definitely time for a new schools chief...this is a good thing for Hawaii students and parents.

shows true character when things are tough you quit. im sure she has a long list of excuses.

there's only so much a person can take; HSTA, lingle, etc. there appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel, then lingle kills it...i'd say she endured enough. good luck in the future and have a nice retirement ms. hamamoto.

Happy New Year---she's gone. Good riddance. She has no leadership ability and vision. Just a typical bureaucrat. The entire education system is a joke and in shambles. When will our lawmakers realize that this elephant is not salvageable and the best solution is to de-centralize the school system. NEVER---because they are stupid and they are beholden to the unions. DO NOT POUR MORE MONEY INTO EDUCATION because more money is NOT the answer. Hamamoto's departure is the good news--the bad news is that the Board of Education will probably put another idiot in there.

Opportunity for change. One of the great fallacies of education reform was the concept of Principal as CEO. Principals are raised and trained as educators and that should be the core of their work. It sounds counterintuitive, but we need to take the administration, security, facilities, OFF of their plate so that they can focus on content, performance, and meaningfully engaging the parent base.Hamamoto had heart and a work ethic, but was a product of the system she's trying to reform. Perhaps it's time to look to a strong administrator and organizational leader. The driving need of the DOE is organizational reform. Build a solid structure, and efforts to improve performance can be both managed and sustained.

What changes can we say Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto, in charge of the school system since 2001, brought about in our school system? One glaring achievement was the increase in the DOE budget. In FY 99-00, the entire DOE budget was $972 MILLION dollars. Under her guidance the DOE budget grew to $2.4 BILLION dollars by FY 08-09, all the while enrollment and test scores were decreasing. Way to go Pat, less enrollment, lower test scores and yet a 147 percent INCREASE in budget. Both the taxpayers and the children were RIPPED off.

That hack leaving can only work a great deal better than the obsolete, failing system that has failed the state's future generations. An enlarged status quo system will not change the practice of sending Hawaii's children out into the big, real world unprepared to meet the challenges they will most certainly have to deal with. Forcing them to survive on the margins of poverty, to eke out a future of frustration and despair, lacking the necessary tools and skills in reading, writing, communicating, math, history and so many other needed talents that were not responsibly delivered nor achieved during their years in Hawaii's Public School System. Spewing it's obsolete and failed theories and practices upon the children of the state; contaminating the child's, and the parent's, dreams and hopes of a successful future and career.

One of the reasons I supported a Constitutional Convention was to get rid of the State-wide school system. Get rid of a whole layer of bureaucrats and see if schools improve. For sure the present system is just getting worse.

<quoted text>there's only so much a person can take; HSTA, lingle, etc. there appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel, then lingle kills it...i'd say she endured enough. good luck in the future and have a nice retirement ms. hamamoto.

What surprises me the most is that this was kept so quiet and without any leaks to the press to make the last couple of days most uncomfortable for her. Think of all the impromptu press conferences and embaressing questions that won't get asked now.

Yes the DOE need to restructure, administrative heavy. Money needs to go into the classroom. On the other hand, No Child Left Behind by the Bush Administration was a good idea, but no funding. Presently, Special Ed take up the bulk of the moeny. Special Ed children have a teacher and aids to tutor and follow them around. With the crystal meth problem, you have disabled emotional children going to school, being raised by the school. Welfare children getting free lunch. The system isn't geared for the regular student but the neglected child with irresponsible parents.

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